Read a full match report of the Premier League game between Liverpool and
Fulham at Anfield on Saturday Dec 22 2012.

This was one of those evenings when the stars aligned for Liverpool… and Stewart Downing finally scored in the Premier League. Miracles do happen. Well it is Christmas.

It was certainly one of Liverpool’s most dazzling performances of the season as Fulham were imperiously brushed aside. And it was no coincidence that it also came with probably the best display of Liverpool’s biggest star, Steven Gerrard, for quite some time.

Here was the Gerrard of legend: pinging passes, snapping into tackles, eating up ground – and scoring with panache. That he was aided and abetted by Downing, such a previously callow figure since his £20m move to Liverpool, was the greater surprise. His goal was the first he has struck in the league for Liverpool. Not Drowning, but waving.

Downing can go in January, manager Brendan Rodgers wants him out, but surely not if he plays like this even if, in fairness, Liverpool will not often face opponents as drained of confidence and belief as Fulham who beat them twice last season.

How Liverpool have craved an early goal. How emphatically they achieved it. After Jonjo Shelvey’s flick was deflected for a corner, Gerrard took the kick which evaded Daniel Agger’s leap and landed at the feet of his central defensive partner, Martin Skrtel. He controlled instantly and hammered the crispest of right-foot volleys into the net.

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So often Liverpool’s early dominance of matches had not reaped such a reward and then, soon after, Downing, yes Downing, almost added a second with another well-struck drive which was tipped around the post by Mark Schwarzer – even though no corner was awarded.

Nerves were settled. Fulham, on a dire sequence of results, had come to contain and then strike by stealth with Dimitar Berbatov as a lone forward. He was booed – maybe a recognition of his threat but more likely his Manchester United association – and he almost then got on the end of a near-post cross as Sascha Riether too easily beat Suso.

Berbatov was Fulham’s source of hope although maybe manager Martin Jol would have been better served by being bolder and using the pace of Hugo Rodallega, too. Fulham were, otherwise, frankly shambolic – summed up by a square pass by Giorgis Karagounis to Chris Baird that was allowed to drift to Downing who was then fouled.

Familiar wastefulness, though, affected Liverpool for a while when Gerrard’s scissor kick of a volley rebounded to Luis Suárez who crossed low for Agger to somehow sky over the crossbar.

The game opened up. Pepe Reina, with a touch of the unorthodox, kicked out Kieran Richardson’s low shot while Riether, just, toe-poked Suárez’s shrewd through ball to safety as Suso ran clear. An even cuter pass, this time from Downing, did lead to a second Liverpool goal.

The winger picked out Gerrard’s driving run from outside the box and the captain drove the ball back across goal to beat Schwarzer.

Incredibly, according to the stats, it was the first time Gerrard had scored and assisted in the league in the same game since May 2009 and he was a more dynamic presence than of late.

Fulham were in danger, if it hadn’t already happened, of being overwhelmed and Suárez was left pulling his shirt up to his face in frustration as the ball broke to him – only for the striker to drag a low shot wide. Suárez got another sight of goal – this time though, after controlling Glen Johnson’s threaded pass, he was pushed wide and his eventual shot was easily saved.

Home form has been tough for Liverpool this campaign and Rodgers decided to follow the announcement of Raheem Sterling’s new contract by resting him, along with another of his young tyros, Joe Allen.

Anfield has not been a fortress with league victories garnered previously against sides in the bottom four.

Fulham are not in that predicament but on this display they should be looking over their shoulder.

The dip is becoming a perilous lurch. The deficit should have been even greater soon into the second-half when Downing’s cross was deflected to Suárez. Through on goal he, inexplicably, poked the ball wide. As Fulham’s resistance continued to crumble, that third goal came – and Downing claimed it.

The brio with which Downing took his goal was all the more stunning as it was so unfamiliar. He collected possession on the right, ran at John Arne Riise and was allowed to come back inside on his left-foot and strike a shot that was too powerful for Schwarzer at the near post.

Fulham were beaten but Rodallega, a half-time replacement, went close when he rose to meet a cross only for the ball to deflect off his head.

Despite Liverpool’s dominance it served as a warning, although at least now Fulham were showing some attacking intent and Berbatov had some support. Soon after, Reina had to push out a low shot from Ashkan Dejagah.

Liverpool steadied and normal service resumed with Shelvey and then Downing going close from distance before Schwarzer blocked Gerrard’s close-range side-foot with his legs before Suárez bundled his way clear to also be denied, just about. Reina then parried two Berbatov efforts but the game was long gone.